Friday, May 12, 2017

Interlude - Ogres & Terrain

I've just figured out rivers in the computational hex mapping project - doing a bit of refinement now, but I believe I'll be able to display rivers with some nod to their relative size - so the Mississippi, for example, will be of a greater width than the Des Peres, and each river may at least resemble it's proper size as compared to the size of the hexes displayed.

More later.

Autarch's latest Kickstarter, Heroic Fantasy Handbook and Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu, funded, and funded well, and the boards are alight with development, go check that out.

At any rate, I've been a bit spread out, so no dubious content for you this month. I can, instead, show you some relatedly fun things:

I'd 'accidentally' won an auction from my FLGS - the Ogre Designer Edition (Kickstarter version). I'd almost not won it - they called to tell me I won, didn't leave a message, and two more weeks passed for a 'final call'. Thankfully they left a message that time.

It's what I get for doing things on a lark. Only way I'll win a lottery is if I find a ticket on the sidewalk. I'd played Ogre once maybe a zillion years ago; and now I've got some ~25 pounds of cardboard. I forgot how fun/quick it was.

My weakness being completion, I'd ordered a couple of the after-market addon sheets, the first being some of the extra Ogres - starting with this:

That's the backer-funded Vatican faction.

I know, right? Pope Ogre III. I could not resist.

My ever-patient wife worked up some wonderful terrain - not for gaming, alas, but for educational purposes:

I guess I should have rotated that.

It's progression of...forest, I think? I think the rocks (handed out by the volcano?) erode and plants decompose into soil, which then supports trees. Most of the plastic plantlife was sourced from our local hobby shop.

Not shown were some very well done 'flood' dishes, the "murky" tinted goop for making train-layout lakes with some dirt underneath and bits of twigs for denuded trees.

I've got some ideas for the volcanoes to bring them up to spec. Little battery pack, some red LEDs, and cotton balls in the classic plaster-of-Paris volcano mound should do the trick. I'd have to figure a way to have a river of lava with a minimum amount of backing, so the LED can glow through...

That previous statement is why she's ever-patient, for what it's worth.

We're quickly corkscrewing into the useless summer season of this blog, so curb-stomp your enthusiasm. I wager in a couple weeks I'll at least reveal some progress on the mapping project.